Karaoke Fame!

When I was a kid I loved the show Fame. I loved the movie, too. I wanted to be one of the kids in Fame. I wanted to go to a performing arts high school. At the time that I really, really loved watching Fame, we lived in Frederick, Maryland, which is a suburb of DC. I heard that there was a performing arts high school in the city similar to the one in Fame. I begged my parents to let me audition so I could study drama. My father asked, "How are you going to go to school in DC?"

I said, "You can drive me."

"No, that's not going to happen," my father informed me.

"Why not?" I demanded. "It's only forty-five minutes to get there."

"It's not going to happen," my father repeated.

I hated him for refusing to drive me to school in the city. Of course, hated him in the way 14-year-old kids hate their parents when they won't let them do something they want to do. I couldn't understand how my parents could intentionally stand between me and Fame. Didn't they know how important it was to me? Didn't they know that I was meant to live my life on stage? Didn't they know that being an actress was all I wanted in life? They didn't know anything about me. They didn't want to see me live my dream. I should have been Coco, except for the dancing part. I was never much of a dancer. But, I'm not going to say I should have been Doris because she was so, you know, dumpy. If only. If only my parents would have let me go to school in DC. Why? Why? Why? OK, I'm too overwrought to go on right now. Here I am singing Irene Cara's Out Here On My Own.